BAROQUE (1600-1750)

“Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the [Bach] B Minor Mass?” – Michael Torke

 THE SOCIETY

  • The world was “expanding.”  Trade was connecting countries.  A fledgling middle class was emerging.  Great philosophers and scientists were questioning everything, and great artists like Shakespeare brought unique perspectives.

THE ROLE OF MUSIC

  • Wealthy aristocrats hired court composers to create music for entertainment, and the Church commissioned composers to create music for God.

  • Professional musicians either worked for aristocrats or the Church.  There was no such thing as a freelance professional composer.

  • Dance music was all the rage (think waltzes and minuets, not clubbing).

  • By the mid-1600s, nothing was more popular than opera.

 MUSICAL STYLE

  • Reflecting scientific thought (logic), music becomes very complicated, intricate, and controlled.

  • Reflecting the opulent lifestyle of the kings and queens (think Palace of Versailles), music becomes extravagant, elaborate, and exaggerated.

  • Contrast was big in music: contrasting volumes, instrument sounds, groups of performers, styles, etc.

  • The equally balanced multi-voiced polyphony of the Renaissance polarized into a preference for a melody supported by a strong bass (basso continuo).

 MUSICAL DEVELOPMENTS

  • Instrumental music (music composed for instruments only, without voices) took hold and gained in popularity.  A cappella vocal music took a back seat.

  • The modern orchestra was born.

  • Opera was invented.

  • This era also sees the rise of the virtuoso (a person who specializes in playing one instrument REALLY well).

COMPOSERS  

FUN FACTS

  • Vivaldi boasted that he could compose a concerto faster than his copyists could write the parts out for the performers.

  • Remember playing the recorder back in 4th grade?  Well, Vivaldi wrote some serious music for that instrument.  Don’t believe me?  Check out his playlist to see a guy shredding (or whatever the recorder equivalent is).

  • Castrati were the international celebrities of the time (actually, this wouldn’t have been a very fun fact if you happened to be on the chopping block, so to speak).

  • Haydn once said of Handel, “He is the master of us all,” and Beethoven said of him, “He is the greatest of all German composers…I would uncover my head and kneel down on his tomb.”

  • The composer Jean-Baptiste Lully was perhaps the only person to die of a conducting injury.

  • Bach was arrested and put in jail for a month because he and his employer were not on the same page.

  • Bach also once got into a duel with one of his students (don’t get any ideas!).  Don’t worry, neither one was hurt, but Bach was scolded heavily by the school administrators and admonished to try to get along better with his pupils.

  • And one more about Bach: While we now think of him as perhaps the greatest composer who ever lived, in his lifetime, Bach’s music was considered out of style.  Everything but his keyboard works fell into obscurity after he died, until Mendelssohn revived it 78 years later (more on that soon).